Stories from all categories
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I just learned that Ghanaians call ketchup catch-up. I learned this from a poster advertising tomato catch-up.The poster is in a kenkey boutique. Kenkey is a fermented paste made from corn and wrapped in corn ...read more
There is a plump old man near where I’m living who is so extremely sweet that every time I pass he is surrounded by small children. They press on him and rest their starfish hands ...read more
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A man saved my life today, deftly and in German. He sped past on his bicycle and veered in to make me stop. Excuse me, your brake cable is dangling and it's gonna tangle in ...read more
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First wasp kiss of summer. She was drinking the sweet sweat under my arm, a wasp with good taste. Feeling the tickle I disturbed her, and: youch. Glass of prosecco took the edge off and ...read more
Thinking this afternoon about the insulting phrase All Lives Matter, and its to me clear and obvious translation: "Black Lives Do Not Matter to Me." It seems to me we may need an alternative explanatory ...read more
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It is summer and the lockdown is easing; I went to pick up my disreputable, battered guitar from a studio where I'd left it lying, the week before the virus took hold. Such a beautiful ...read more
17
Eleven weeks ago today my husband walked out. I went to the park and when I came home, he was gone. When I closed the door behind me that morning there was no warning this ...read more
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Hey Europe! It's like this. We stole the whole world from everyone. Retired behind desks to administer the plunder, lost our fitness. So we envy the godlike build of men who spent generations labouring enslaved. ...read more
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In the late afternoon I walked down to the square. I've been indoors now every day of eight weeks. People were sitting round the edge of the grass as though it were a swimming pool ...read more